WRVU Vanderbilt

WRVU is a student-run college radio station affiliated with Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, operating today exclusively via internet streaming. The station's origins trace to 1951, when a clandestine campus broadcast under the name "the Voice of the Commodore" was established before being shut down by university administration. A formally sanctioned student station followed on March 30, 1953, initially operating as an unlicensed carrier-current outlet on 580 kHz AM under the self-assigned identifier "WVU". The station received FCC authorization to broadcast on 91.1 FM in the early 1970s, operating from studios in Neely Auditorium before relocating to Vanderbilt's Sarratt Student Center. It broadcast on 91.1 FM under the WRVU call letters until 2014, when its licensed terrestrial frequency was sold, ending over-the-air transmission. The station has continued as a streaming-only outlet since that transition. WRVU is structured as a division of Vanderbilt Student Communications (VSC), an independent non-profit affiliated with the university that oversees student media operations. The station has historically provided a platform for independent and alternative music alongside student journalism and cultural programming, maintaining a distinctly student-directed editorial identity separate from official university control.